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Amandla Stenberg

Actress and Activist

Named for the Zulu and Xhosa word for "power," Amandla was born in Los Angeles, California, to Karen Brailsford, a writer, and Tom Stenberg. Their mother is African-American and their father is Danish (and of part Inuit-Greenlandic ancestry). In the summer and fall of 2010, the actor shot their first feature, Colombiana, an action-thriller starring Zoe Saldana. In April 2011, Lionsgate announced that Amandla had landed the role of Rue in the screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins' popular young adult series, The Hunger Games (2012). For their heart-breaking performance, Amandla earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. They also won (with Jennifer Lawrence) a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Chemistry.

Amandla has starred in the recurring role of Macey, the daughter of Captain Frank Irving (Orlando Jones), on season one of Fox's Sleepy Hollow. In the summer of 2015, Amandla played series regular Halle Foster on Mr. Robinson opposite Craig Robinson. They made their Sundance Film Festival debut with the teen angst drama As You Are which won a Special Jury prize. Amandla appears in several sequences in the visual album Beyoncé: Lemonade. In March 2016 Fox 2000 won a heated bidding war for Angela Thomas' debut novel, The Hate U Give with Amandla attached to star. The actor has also nabbed lead roles in the YA adaptation Everything, Everything, the Amma Asante World War II romance, Where Hands Touch; and in the film adaptation of The Darkest Minds series by Alexandra Bracken.

In addition to on-camera jobs, Amandla has put their sensitive ear to work in voice-over gigs for both film and television. They lent their voice to Rio 2 in the role of Bia. A gifted musician, Amandla plays the violin, drums and guitar. In 2013, Amandla began performing on the violin and singing harmonies at LA venues with singer/songwriter Zander Hawley. The folk-rock duo, known as Honeywater, released their first EP in August 2015 and a second in November 2016.

When they're not making music, Amandla is making noise on social media. They were declared "one of the most incendiary voices of their generation" by Dazed magazine, which featured Amandla on the cover of its Autumn 2015 issue. Teen Vogue featured Amandla on its February 2016 cover. In tandem with the issue's release, Amandla co-directed a trio of videos about black women. Amandla helped catapult the topic of cultural appropriation into public discourse when they posted their school project video, "Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows," onto their Tumblr in 2014.

Oprah Winfrey took note of their activism and invited Amandla to give a talk ("My Authenticity Is My Activism") for SuperSoul Sessions Series 2 at UCLA's Royce Hall in April 2016. Highlights were featured on Super Soul Sunday. "Black Girls Rock!" Inc honored Amandla with the Young, Gifted and Black award and they are also the winner of the "BET Awards 2016" YoungStars award. The Ms. Foundation for Women named Amandla, along with Rowan Blanchard "Feminist Celebrity of the Year" in 2016. The actor-activist landed a spot on Time magazine's list of the 30 Most Influential Teens in 2015 and 2016. With Stranger Comics' Sebastian Jones, Amandla co-writes the comic book Niobe: She is Life. A youth ambassador for No Kid Hungry, Amandla also supports the Ubuntu Education Fund, which nurtures children "from cradle to career" in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.